Serene Destiny
by Crossovers Born From Curiosity
Summary: When Serenity encounters a strange vessel out in the black, River surprisingly has no idea what might be onboard, leading the crew to board the ship in an attempt to investigate, but are they alone or will they encounter resistance? Takes place after Season Two of SGU and before Serenity. Pairings: Mal/Inara, Kaylee/Simon, Wash/Zoe, Jayne/Vera, Scott/Chloe
1. Realization

A pale foot lowered itself over the short but thick bronze metal rim of the doorframe, the owner's hands placing themselves on the rim itself, slowly but carefully pulling the young girl inside. River Tam had nearly been frightened when she extended her senses to the vast ancient derelict, fully expecting something of any kind, any single thought, any single whisper. What she felt instead, however, was an impossible silence.

The ship had flown itself towards them, correcting it's course slightly in order to match up with their own. No autopilot in the alliance could do such a thing without prompting from a live human being. The only possible explanation was that someone was somewhere within the ship, sending commands to the navigation, but River sensed nobody. That is, until she made her way through the airlock.

River collapsed onto her hands and knees, gasping for air, suddenly feeling the influx of memories. Not just current thoughts from people walking through the ship, memories. The very air of the ship teemed with remnants of the past. The reader grabbed at the circular handle of the bulkhead door, gathering her own breath, as she felt her brother immediately run to her side.

"River" he said calmly, albeit a tone of nervousness in his voice, "what's wrong? Are you all-"

"I'm fine, Simon" River cut him off, closing her eyes, now fully steadied against the door.

Simon paused, "is something here?" He asked, the worry disappearing somewhat from his voice, only slightly remaining, as he remembered the derelict they had explored that harbored a man turned reaver onboard, who turned out to be a man no more. "Is there someone else onboard?"

River slowly but surely opened her eyes, "so much, so small, yet holding so much." She sighed, her mind bit by bit adjusting to the emotions in the air. _Serenity_ had always had emotional traces, but not as strong as this, never as strong as this. For all River could tell, the completely alien ship could very well be alive.

Simon blinked, obviously confused at his sister's vague words, "River, is there anything here with us?"

River smiled, straightening herself as if nothing had happened, causing Simon to repeat his question. "Of course" she said casually, "we're not alone, we're never alone here." The psychic ran her hand horizontally across a wall, her fingers dragging lightly as she slowly stepped onwards. "Are we?" she spoke to thin air, "I thought not"

Her brother could only stare as River addressed some non-corporeal being, "River, who are you talking to?"

River could only smile, "Destiny" was the only word she spoke before the girl turned and disappeared before her brother knew it, down through the semi-lit hallway, her brown hair following shortly behind.

****SGU opening montage, but with the letters SGF instead of SGU****


	2. Awakening

_Mal sprinted up onto the flight deck, Zoe and Jayne having preceded him there. "What is it? The feds?" He immediately asked out of concern for their carried illicit cargo._

_Wash shook his head, an uncertain look on his face, "nah, it doesn't bear an alliance signature. In fact, it doesn't bear any signature, it's just there, and it's huge, very huge." _

_Mal took a look at the impending vessel on the sensors, revealing it's length and width to be three times as large as that of the massive Tohoku-class Alliance cruisers they were used to dealing with in their travels across the rim worlds. "_fuhn pi, wo wu shin wo dah yan jing!_" __Mal whispered, captivated by the sheer size of the unknown ship. _

_"__it's not Reavers, that's for sure" Wash took another look at sensors, "the ship's engines are like nothing I've seen, but they're surely operating with core containment, although I am picking up trace amounts of radiation scattered across the ship."_

_"__Dangerous?" Zoe asked, her hand resting itself on Wash's shoulder, where it was found by Wash's own hand._

_Wash shook his head again, "not seemingly, no. It's fading away pretty quickly, but I'm guessing the radiation would've hit it's peak sometime...oh, near when it first appeared 5 minutes ago?" He hesitantly suggested. The looks of mild surprise cast didn't go unnoticed by the pilot, "yeah, River isn't the only one who knows how to do math, you know!" He said in his own defense._

_"__I was under the impression everyone aboard could do some mathematics" Zoe reassured her husband, "except maybe Jayne." She added, earning a hardly repressed scowl from Jayne himself._

_Jayne thankfully remained silent on the subject, "want me to shoot 'em?" he asked, turning his head towards the captain, who was just over the verge of getting over his shock._

_Mal shook his head, "ain't nothin they done, whoever these _mo min chi meow_are, not even sure we could outrun it, what with how big that things gettin' in my window." He said, one nagging question still fresh in his mind. "What the hell is that thing anyway?" _

_"__Destiny" a small voice said, drawing each pair of eyes to the figure in the doorway, her own eyes fixated on the approaching ship in the window, "very old, very wise," she began "very kind, very lonely" she leaned her head against the frame, smiling nostalgically._

_Mal looked back at River, "little girl, you know who these strange folk are?" _

_River kept staring for several moments, entranced by the view, "Destiny. That's all I hear" she said, to the dismay of Mal, "oldest ship in the 'verse, so alone, and nothing else"_

_"__Is there anything over there we should be worryin' about?" Mal asked impatiently, wanting an answer in advance, rather than finding out too late._

_River said nothing for several moments, working hard to not announce the fear that was clearly shown in her wide eyes. "I don't know" she finally said, not exactly lending any serenity to any of the present crew as the large unknown ship filled more and more of the window._

* * *

Mal's mind brushed over that memory as he and Zoe, followed by Jayne carefully walked into the large room, guns drawn. They had analyzed the small amount of air aboard the strange vessel, having awkwardly docked, and found it to be breathable. Not only that, but given the size of the ship it was likely they could go around a week without spacesuits, although that didn't help the air conditioning of the ship itself.

Zoe looked in awe at something at the far end, though she was unsure why she should've been. "Sir" she said, drawing Mal's attention to the object. As they had walked through the ship, lights had come on around them, and as Mal looked, four separate lights activated simultaneously, revealing a giant dark metal ring, with symbols etched or engraved along the inside. Periodically were several triangular-shaped objects along the outer edge ring, flanked with extruding small rectangles on the sides like the symbol for a military badge.

Mal couldn't put his finger on it, but something told him that this metal ring was important in some way, that it served a purpose, even though he hadn't a _b__ai rih mohn_ idea what it could be. "Either o' you two have a clue what this is?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"No idea, sir" Zoe replied, taking her eyes off the ring

"Does it matter?" Jayne asked in his normal apathetic attitude, "ain't nothin' but a gorram metal ring, why should we be dwellin' on it when there's other stuff to be found?"

Mal did his best to ignore Jayne's remark, futile as it may have been "al'right, we're not here to sightsee, this place is huge"

"Anything in particular we lookin' for, sir?" Zoe asked, focusing on Mal, who shook his head in uncertainty.

"Not sure what we could find in this hella-huge hunk o' metal. A storeroom in general would be nice" He looked around the room, deciding where to go next, when they heard running footsteps coming from the nearby entrance, as if something was about to burst into the ring room.

The three spun around, guns raised, as Simon dashed in, out of breath, and froze at the sight of Mal, Zoe and Jayne, who quickly put their weapons down in annoyance. Jayne growled at him "what the hell are you doin'?" he demanded, still suffering an adrenaline rush from the minute scare Simon unwittingly gave a moment ago.

Simon, still out of breath from his run, managed to find the words to respond, 'River, she...she ran off, I-"

Mal let loose a Chinese curse of his own to express his further annoyance "z_hen dao mei_" he looked up in exasperation, then down at Simon, "you're supposed to have your sister under control!"

Simon looked at him defensively, "she ran off! It's not like I can outrun her!"

Mal took a step towards the young doctor, their gazes locked together in defiant eye contact, "we are on a strange ship where we have no idea what might be on here, I don't rightly think this is an entirely safe place for your sister, _dohn-luh-mah?_" Mal turned, wanting to find the doctor's crazy little sister before she found something, or- god forbid- something found her.

"River seemed to know" Simon said, stopping Mal in his tracks, "she stepped across the threshold, nearly collapsed, and then had this look on her face like all of a sudden...she knew"

Mal sighed, not worrying as much now that he knew River apparently had some idea what she was getting into, "alright, doc, let's find your sister"

* * *

Speeding through the halls of the ancient exploratory vessel, giving into her natural inclination to run, River felt truly free for the first time in her life.

_Serenity_ had been peaceful for her from the moment she awoke onboard, not many people aboard, plenty of metaphorical room for her tattered psyche as she sensed all that went on. Every feeling, every deception, every thought, was all within her range of vision. Not like this ship, however. Not like _Destiny_.

_Destiny_ was different, more than _Serenity_ ever was for her. Sure, _Destiny _harbored the minds of over a hundred people, their bodies dormant, though their minds exceedingly active. On Serenity such a thing would've been hell, but it seemed the massive size of the mysterious ship somehow gave River some breathing room.

The Stargate had been inactive for hundreds of years. River wanted to remind it of what it was, the magnificent looking glass that led to adventure, but there was no time for that now. _Destiny_ was sleeping, as it had done for hundreds of years. However, that was just dozing off compared to the billions of years it had slept before.

"_Destiny_ is sleeping" River said to herself, the ship being the only listener as she stopped in front of a horizontally rectangular door, larger than the common doors, bearing three circles of varying sizes, the largest of which lying on the line dividing the differently shaded halves of the door. "Time to wake up"


	3. Confrontation: Part 1

**Finally written, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Oblivious to both River's actions and whereabouts, the rest of _Serenity_'s crew had gathered in a small circular room with an access terminal attached to the base of a pillar-like object in the center, two separate access terminals were closer to the wall. The pillar appeared to be old, rusty, and had no covering, so the outer components were open to view. Either smoke or steam gently curled upward from the top of the pillar, not enough that Malcolm Reynolds would consider it dangerous, but he was wary all the same.

He looked toward where Zoe, Inara, and Simon were hunched over one of the terminals, attempting to find something they could use. He didn't think at first that Simon would be any use, but then remembered Simon's previous life in the core and thought it might be worth a shot. "Anything?" He asked impatiently, though it had only been a few minutes.

Inara shook her head, her short, dark bangs following her example, "well, a little" she said, causing the crew to raise many an eyebrow in interest, "however, most of it is in some unknown language that nobody's seen before, so that's an issue."

"However it appears some of it is already translated," Simon picked up, "the name of the ship, for example: _Destiny._" A slight hush went over the crew, having already informed each other of River's vague premonition.

"So River already knew the name, but couldn't sense anything else? She's psychic, and I don't think distance was much of an issue" Wash leaned against the wall, his arms crossed in almost-boredom.

"Actually I think there must've been something onboard preventing River from sensing anything apart from the ship's name from outside the ship" Simon replied calmly, addressing Wash, although the rest of the crew only stared at Simon in laughable disbelief as Simon explained his theory "I mean, it makes sense, given she only knew the name of the ship until she took one step inside, and she collapsed and...I don't know how but suddenly she knew. She just...began talking to _Destiny_ as if she knew it, as if it was an old friend" He looked up to several expressions of disbelief, several of contemplation, and one of spiteful mockery, which proceeded to make itself known to the crew.

Jayne shook his head with his usual scowl and said mockingly "well, whaddaya know? We got ourselves a worthless piece of junk out here that's made River even more _shiang jing ping._"

Jayne's harsh remark sent several pairs of eyes his way. While Kaylee looked mildly offended at Jayne's opinion of a ship she was mighty interested in, Simon merely looked mildly annoyed, as if he had expected nothing less from the burly mercenary. Mal himself found it necessary to open his mouth to discipline his public relations officer when the lights flickered.

Lights flickering wouldn't have frightened any of the crew on any other ship, not even the reaver-hit derelict they had encountered many months prior. Here, however, the lights flickered for several long seconds, everyone looking up at them before they finally stabilized.

"Well, it seems the worthless piece of junk has spoken" Book said humorously, smiling at Jayne, then looked back at the three at the console, "anything else you've found?"

"Ship's running low on power, sir" Zoe said calmly, as if it wasn't a problem at all, "should have the lights on for a while, though"

Mal frowned, "how much power's left?"

Inara pressed a couple of buttons cautiously, "about...a week's worth" she said, not looking up, "the flickering lights seem to be because of a power surge in..." she trailed off as she pulled up some kind of map to answer her implied question. "...In this section" she finally said, pointing at a location on the map which had flashed for a moment.

Zoe peered over the other woman's shoulder as Inara zoomed out to reveal the section in relation to their current location, "doesn't look too far away from here, sir", she looked up at Mal, who began considering his options.

"Alright" Mal said a moment later, "we currently have three days to shave off our schedule, 'less of course we change our minds about our rendezvous with Badger's associate. Zo-"

"With all due respect, captain" Simon interrupted, crossing his arms, "this ship is much more important than any cargo you could be carrying right now. Don't tell me you've ever seen a ship like this before"

"He's got a point, captain" Kaylee spoke up, "nobody's ever seen a ship like this before, it's barely even got our language anywhere. It's as if it was made by aliens" Kaylee had a sudden flashback to when she and Simon paid 15 credits each to gaze upon a mutated cow fetus and realized that they would likely be dealing with real live aliens now.

Mal thought a moment and made the quick jump in the other direction to appease his crew, who appeared to be taking sides against him "okay, then I guess we'll be stayin' a while. For now, at least" He said, much to Simon's unspoken relief. "Zoe, Kaylee, we'll be checking out that power surge, make sure nothing too _wei shan_'s going on, and maybe have to fix it so it don't"

"I can guide you there" Inara said, making eye contact with Mal, "this interface doesn't seem to be too challenging, although I probably wouldn't be able to do anything too complicated, or much at all" she shrugged subtly, looking back at the screen

"That'd be good enough" Mal nodded, turning to the rest of the crew, "Jayne, Simon, Preacher, you're to be checkin' out the nearby areas, see if you can't find a supply room somewhere, anything we can salvage. Wash, contact Badger, we might be spendin' more time here than the job..." The lights once again flickered, causing Mal to hesitate "...requires." He finished

Simon looked at the captain expectantly, "and what about River? We need to find he-"

Mal's reply cut Simon short. "We'll find her eventually, doctor, 'sides, she seems to know what she's doing, even if we don't"

* * *

"Now we're talking" The burly man said with a grin, eyeing the weapons in the storeroom as he stood in the doorway

Simon glanced past Jayne, not afraid to express his disagreement, "I think we have plenty of guns aboard _Serenity_, Jayne" He said, looking to the Shepherd for reinforcement as Jayne stepped forward.

"Ain't nothing wrong with taking a quick look, young man" Book said calmly, proceeding after Jayne into the storeroom while Simon hesitantly remained in the hallway for a moment, before following suit.

Jayne, as anyone who knew the man would expect, immediately went to the biggest-looking gun of them all, which wasn't that bigger than his own prized rifle, Vera. Taking it into his hands for inspection, he smiled as he examined the long automatic. "Whoever this here ship belonged to" he said, bringing the attention of Simon and Book, "they sure had good taste"

Simon frowned, thinking, his eyes coming to stare at Jayne's vaguely familiar find "if this is an alien ship, and it doesn't bear any alliance signature, and it's completely unlike anything we've seen" he picked up something beside the other guns, "why is a classic old earth handgun onboard?"

"told ya'" Jayne glanced beside him at the young doctor, "aliens had good taste." He raised the gun towards the wall, getting into a firing pose, testing how the weapon felt in his grip.

"it looks military" Book's deep voice appeared behind the two, "not Alliance, you'd see the standard engravings on the trigger and the plating on the barrel. I'd old earth military, given it's completely black, but the question remains..."

"How'd it get here?" Simon wondered aloud, "we left earth over 500 years ago. This ship looks way older than that, more like 5000. Even if this was one of the ships that made the departure from earth, how'd it get lost? And where are the people? I doubt this ship could've been attacked by reavers, so where are they?"

"One thing's for sure" Jayne put the gun down, "this here ship ain't nothin' normal"

"You're telling me" Book said, having looked around some more during Simon's soliloquy. He raised the collar of a tactical vest that had been left there, peering intently at the tag. "You might want to take a look at this"

Simon and Jayne stood beside book, looking at the tag on the collar, Simon breaking the silence moments after as he stared at the cloth in the flashlight beam. "2012?" He gasped in shock, as the three exchanged a glance of confusion.

* * *

"what do you think these aliens look like?" Kaylee mused, walking behind Mal and Zoe, who led the way with their guns drawn

"Don't rightly know, don't rightly care" Mal said, not really intent on listening, "point is we find out what's draining the power and make sure it's nothin' too serious"

"_Take a right here"_ Inara's voice sounded over the communicator, "_all the way down the next hallway_"

The three of them walked down a lengthy hallway, small trails of smoke being emitted by jets somewhere in the ceiling lights.

"c'mon captain" Kaylee pried, "surely you're not the least bit curious, aren't ya?" Kaylee smiled her usual happy smile, although feelings of hidden fear slowly crept into her as she tried to stop imagining what they would find.

"_Take a right at the end"_

Mal listened to Inara's voice as she relayed directions to them. Another sound hit his ears, however, the sound of one of the doors opening in front of them. The familiar spin of the gears of a door halted around the corner, and Mal didn't need to ask Zoe if she heard it too. It might've been River, sure, the reader girl was still missing, but Mal pushed Kaylee back behind them, not wanting to risk it.

Voices engaged in casual conversation replaced the sound on the whirring, young male voices seemingly engaged in a dispute. Even more surprising was the cultured english they spoke. A lot could be told from a voice, the way someone spoke. Anyone who heard Jayne and Simon speak separately could easily tell where they had grown up. Jayne was quite obviously from the rim, while Simon from somewhere civilized.

Mal had been all over the known 'verse, but he had never heard the types of voice were speaking in. It was definitely familiar, definitely similar to the civilized way Simon spoke, but they didn't have the usual Anglo-Sino tone that could be found even on the desolate rim worlds. Everyone in the alliance spoke with the same accent, more or less with differences, but the tone was uniform across the known 'verse. These were not people who were of the alliance.

"...didn't automatically revive us when we dropped out, it was done manuall-" the voice was that of a teenager, and quickly interrupted by a slightly older, more authoritative one.

"None of the other stasis chambers were open, Eli, it means there's someone else aboard, maybe even one of those aliens" the footsteps drew closer

"right, right, but don't you think that they'd actually be at the stasis pods waiting for us?" The footsteps stopped, a mere pause, as the younger man-Eli, as the other man said, must've stopped him.. Mal and Zoe exchanged a glance, thankful for Kaylee's silence behind them. Both men spoke as if they knew exactly who they were talking about. Neither of them wanted to find out who the two were referring to. "better yet, why actually revive us at all?"

A second passed. Another. Finally after a third before the other man spoke again. Military, Mal assumed.

"Alright, let's just get to the bridge" he said, the footsteps resuming.

Mal and Zoe were soldiers, Zoe more so than Mal, although neither of them ever gave up the instincts that made them soldiers. The two nearly jumped back, their grips on their firearms tightening as the two men came around the corner.

And the most noticeable thing Mal could see was the gun quickly raised in his own direction.

* * *

**AN: I could seriously use some reviews for this, guys. I wanna know how terrible I'm doing, or better, how terrible I'm not. I could also use some suggestions on where the story could go. I have a basic outline planned out in my head, but I could easily change it if I get wind of a better idea. Also I could do with knowing what the hell you think of it, although I have a pretty good idea.**


	4. Confrontation: Part 2

**AN: Hello, everyone! I'm sorry for not updating as much as I'd have liked. Contrary to popular belief, summer isn't the most popular time for me to update. Two reasons: I've had to move, and I'm lazy. Sadly, with school starting tomorrow, my updates will be even less frequent, even though everyone is clamoring for more. Just have patience, follow my story, and you'll get an email when I finally get around to it. I will also be attempting to make the chapters longer, to your fangirlish desires. Also I have it kinda planned out, but I could use some suggestions where it could go. Thanks for your time!**

_Lieutenant Matthew Scott opened his eyes, feeling perfectly awake, yet as if he had just woken up from a short nap. It wasn't so short considering the three or more years he had been in stasis. He blinked and took a step forward, glancing to his left left to see Eli, his good friend for over a year, hunched over the nearby console._

_Eli glanced upwards, Matt's movement having caught his eye. "Good morning, sunshine" Eli smiled, looking back down at the console, "good news, going on a month past our due date, so all our friends back on Earth are still alive and my plan worked, believe it or not, except..."_

_Matt looked around at the other active pods, quickly making the intended assumption Eli was likely hinting at, "we're the only ones out" He looked at Eli, "any particular reason why?"_

_Eli tilted his head, "not really sure, maybe insufficient power. Makes sense, considering we've just spent three years in FTL." Eli tapped on the console, something bringing a frown onto his face, "also that we've been running the stasis pods this whole time and this console has very limited access to the rest of the ship" Eli looked up at Matt._

_Matt stared back at Eli, his Icarus base uniform still as fresh as the day he stepped into that stasis chamber. "So we don't have enough power to turn the stasis chambers off, even though they've been running this whole time?" He asked incredulously._

"_Look, Look, that's not exactly how stasis chambers work, they're not like light bulbs. Light bulbs require a small spike of energy to get them working and a lesser constant stream to keep them running. The stasis chambers are similar, but a stasis pod you actually have to give it more power to actually revive the person than it takes to maintain the light bulb because unlike a light bulb you don't just cut the power keeping the person alive. That make sense?" Eli explained._

_Matt sighed, scratching the back of his neck, "I don't suppose a cup of coffee could help me understand that any more than I did?" He said, a smirk just barely hidden on his face_

"_Well, maybe when we get Brody awake, I can give you a science lesson" Eli retorted, eliciting a chuckle from the two of them as they walked out._

* * *

"_Did you really have to grab a gun, Matt?" Eli asked, as Matt caught up from the armory they passed by, jogging slightly to keep up as Eli listed forward._

"_Hey, no harm in grabbing one" Matt slipped the gun into his vest, "besides, you know when you get that feeling?"_

_It was Eli's turn to look incredulous, "what? Like a spooky premonition? You know that's not-"_

"_I know" Matt looked around, "still, I know I shouldn't need it, but..."_

_Eli nodded, "I get ya"_

_Matt nodded in agreement, "so, we gonna figure out the mystery now?"_

"_Right," Eli turned, "nearest consoles are in the gate room, so...this way" _

_Matt followed Eli down the corridor._

* * *

Matthew Scott glared down at the strange man in front of him, not sparing any regret for his previous acquisition of a handgun before they left.

Eli, on the other hand, could do nothing but raise his hands in surrender, looking anxiously down the barrel of the dark-skinned woman's rifle in front of him.

There was a tense moment of silence as both parties evaluated the other, contemplating their next moves. The young boy in the red shirt was clearly not a threat, Zoe presumed, but best to keep an eye on him anyway.

The other man however, had a gun, an immediate red flag to Mal that signified danger, especially given it was raised in his direction. The only comfort Mal had was that his gun was raised as well.

"Matt" Eli broke the silence, "you remembered to lock the door when we went to sleep, right?"

Mal and Zoe might as well have rolled their eyes at Eli with the look they gave him, Mal looking back at the other young man, "why don't you start by tellin' us who you are and what the _qing wa cao de liu mang_ this ship is doing here?"

Scott looked at Mal in curiosity, "was that Chinese?"

Mal hesitated, not sure why the man would ask, "well...yeah, now why don't you get to answering some of our questions and we'll do our best to answer yours." Scott didn't want to argue, this man had an air of authority rivalling that of Colonel Young's.

He sighed, the gun lowering slightly, but not by much. "I'm Lieutenant Matthew Scott, and this is Eli Wallace, our...computer boy"

"Hey!"

Scott ignored Eli's outburst, "your turn, what are your names? And if you wouldn't mind, perhaps we could all...lower our guns?" He made eye contact with the woman pointing the gun at Eli.

Mal gave him a warning look, "I'm not inclined to disagree there. I've no interest in a shootout here, though I wouldn't mind too badly if one did happen." Mal slowly lowered his gun, as did Scott, prompting Zoe to do the same.

"Now" Scott continued, "your names?" He reluctantly holstered his gun, watching the intruders to make sure they mimicked him. Instead they held onto their guns, but in a defensive fashion, not one where they were planning on pulling a fast one. Scott took this as a good sign, and made a point not to aggravate them.

"Name's Malcolm Reynolds, captain of _Serenity_" Mal began, "this is my second, Zoe, and" he took a step to the side to reveal Kaylee hidden behind them, who waved in a nervously friendly manner, "our mechanic, Kaylee"

"Always a pleasure to meet new people" Zoe said dryly, fingers still wrapped around her rifle.

"Serenity?" Eli asked, "interesting name for a ship." He remarked, "Moving on" Eli took up the conversation, "why ar-"

"I actually think it's our turn for a question" Mal interrupted Eli, putting him to a stammer.

"well...ah, sure. Go ahead"

Matt smiled as he faced Mal's question, "What's this ship? and how come we ain't never seen anything like it before?"

Eli and Matt shared another look, longer than the previous one, of complete uncertainty in how to proceed. "See" Eli looked at Matt, "this would be an excellent time for those video recordings I got when I first got into this stuff"

* * *

"so these...ancients...they built a ship that's flown all the way across the universe in several billion years" Mal asked, as the group of them walked through the ship on their way to the bridge one very lengthy explanation later.

"but that ain't possible" Kaylee looked at the two men, _Kuh Ai_ as they were, "how'd it get all the way back here if it left from earth so long ago?"

"Well...we don't know" Eli said

"We've just spent three years in stasis for while we travelled to the next galaxy" Scott informed them, "sometime after that we somehow got transported back to the milky way galaxy, and we just woke up, we don't know what happened." A sudden thought occurred to him, "what year is it?" He asked the captain, nearly stopping in his tracks.

Mal looked at the two young men. He had been about to verbally ask aloud why they wouldn't know the year when he remembered they were in stasis for the past three years. "2518, why? What year do you come from?"

Eli and Matt exchanged a look described back on old Earth as an 'oh shit' face.

* * *

"Hey!" Mal nearly exclaimed as the group strode into the bridge of the _Destiny_, the door having lowered just moments ago, which Kaylee took an immediate interest to. Mal almost would've gotten angry right then, but managed to keep it under control.

The reason, of course, was because sitting at one of the consoles in the front, calmly tapping away at the buttons was none other than River Tam, who appeared to be peacefully ignoring the visitors.

Matt glanced away from the young girl and at the captain, "she one of yours?" He asked warily. He didn't assume the 16 year old girl to be a threat, but something seemed off about her right from the start.

Mainly the fact that she was talking to herself. Before Mal could reply, likely to say yes to Matt's question, given his slightly relieved body language, River giggled. "I've been in a wheelchair before, it didn't seem that bad"

Eli looked at her, puzzled, "is she...?" He waved a finger over the side of his head that meant 'crazy'

Mal didn't pick up on the gesture Eli did, although he did seem to catch the meaning. "Why yes, she is indeed crazy." He said, taking the necessary first steps towards her, "you get used to it"

River frowned, "yes, that must be horrible. Everything done by another person." She mused, oblivious to Mal's approach.

A moment later he stood behind her to the side, "River," he said, her head turning around to notice him for the first time, "are you alright?" He asked out of concern for her condition.

"Never better" she smiled, "Inara wants to talk to you" she turned back around to do her work.

"_Go shi_" he muttered under his breath. Mal had forgotten that he had turned the communicator off. Now Inara was possibly furious that he'd been silent too long. As much as he had stood up to the gorgeous companion in the past, he didn't exactly enjoy the lashing she gave him. There was also the fact that, in panic, she might have been doing something that would only serve to upset the delicate situation. The two men seemed peaceful and trustworthy, but he didn't want to chance it. He pulled the communicator from his belt and walked out into the hall, calling behind him, "I gotta take this!" He turned it back on, "Inara-"

"_Mal, what the hell's been going on?_" A harsh voice shot right at him, interrupting him, "_you've been out of contact for over ten minutes now! We nearly came to get you!_"

The fact that she hadn't sent the four men was a relief, they would be walking blind into a situation they knew nothing about. "Inara, nothin' too horrible's been goin' on, we've just been having some real polite conversation with some aliens here," he said, attempting to ease her worry.

The line was silent for a moment. "_...Aliens, Mal_?" Inara said slowly.

"More like humans. From Earth-that-was" Mal bit back an sarcastic remark.

"_That explains the vest we found._" Simon's voice came through. "_we found a military vest that was made in the year 2012, also weapons that were Earth-that-was era as well._" There was a pause, "_have you found River_?"

Mal admired that boy's concern for his sister, he really did. "Yeah, she's here, and she's fine, and she seems to be talking to some imaginary person in a wheelchair." He could almost picture Simon's look of relief, "we're in some place looks could be the bridge. Why don't you head on up here, if you can figure out exactly where we are." Mal said, glancing down the hallway.

* * *

As Mal left the bridge, Eli found himself curiously drawn the crazy teenager, who seemed to be expertly manipulating the controls of the ship's systems without any hint of hesitation. "Umm...hi" he said awkwardly, the girl giving no reply. Eli continued, "I'm Eli, Eli Wallace" he held out his hand, again eliciting no reaction. He glanced at Matt, who was talking to the two women, the smaller one seemingly a lot more chatty than the other.

Eli tried a different approach, glancing at the screen. "Are you...flying the ship?" He said, noticing exactly what she was doing.

"I'm old enough to drive" came her vacant reply, expertly banking left.

Eli smiled as she finally replied, "so you know Ancient?"

"I do now" Eli remembered her name was River, "I learned it when I got here"

Eli frowned slightly, "didn't your captain say you guys got here a couple hours ago?"

"Approximately one hour, 32 minutes, and 9 seconds since we came onboard." River replied, never having taken her eyes off the screen.

Eli immediately saw that as strange, as she didn't seem the jokester type. The beep of an alert distracted him as River pressed another button, a low hum beginning to build up. His eyes widened, "hey, you're taking us to FTL!" He said a little louder than intended, attracting the attention of the others.

"I know" River replied.

"What the _tian xiao de_ is that girl doing?" Eli heard the captain's voice as he ran back in.

Then there was nothing but the warping of the universe as, for a split second, nothing was nowhere.

* * *

Jayne gripped Vera tightly, "the gorram hell was that?"

"I don't know" Wash mused, "but I doubt it warrants the use of your gun"

"Let's just keep going" Inara attempted to control them, "we'll meet up with the captain there, and we'll figure out what's going on"

Several hallways later, they were lost.

"I told you, we were supposed to turn left back there!" Simon argued, as Inara got out the communicator.

"Mal, we're lost. Care to send someone down here to help us out?" She tried to ignore Simon.

"_I'll send Zoe and one of our new friends down there. We're having a bit of a dilemma up here_" came Mal's annoyed reply, although it didn't seem to be directed at the fact that they were lost. Inara couldn't blame anyone for being lost in the huge derelict. It was indeed more massive than anything else she'd been on.

"I'm going to guess it has something to do with that...thing that just happened?" Inara said, unsure what to call it.

"_Unfortunately it does. Our favorite little reader activated something called an FTL...somethin'. Apparently it does that_"

"Wait" Simon cut in, "As in, faster than light?" Everyone looked at him. "What? It's been a subject of research for centuries"

"_Yes, that._" Mal said after a moment.

"Well, we'll stay here until someone comes to get us" Inara said, also informing him of the approximate place they were in the ship.

"_They'll be right there, Sit tight._" Mal finished.

"So we just wait here?" Jayne scowled his usual expression.

"Apparently, if that's not too hard for you" Simon replied casually, disliking the mercenary's usual attitude.

"Did you hear something?" Book interrupted the exchange.

"Quit trying to scare us, preacher!" Jayne barked at the older man.

"No...I hear something too, shut up" Inara said, the others surprisingly quieting at her order. The silence heralded nothing for several moments before footsteps could be heard.

Simon sighed in relief, "about time"

Book frowned, "that seem a bit quick to you?" He said, exchanging a glance with Jayne.

"What?" He answered coldly, not getting the hint.

Inara took a step forward, then halted in her tracks as an alien came around the corner, bearing translucent skin of blue.

**How'd you like that cliffhanger? Review, people! **


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